Marc Held: 50 Years of Design

'Marc Held, 50 Years of Design' is the first catalogue raisonne, fully illustrated, of the furnitures and objects produced by this famous French designer From the white plastic bed for the Prisunic catalogue (1966) to the Culbuto armchair issued by Knoll, and from the Lip watch to the private apartments of the Elysee Palace, Paris, (1983), the furniture and objects conceived by Marc Held have been emblematic of the renewal of French design, following the line of Scandinavians such as Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen... With his gallery L'Echoppe on the rue de Seine, Paris, and then with his agency, the designer and architect Marc Held also took part in major projects for IBM and Renault. This book traces fifty years of design, whose success with the public at large has contributed to a great liberation in our style of life. The generosity of his vision has remained faithful to the humanist values that guided his childhood in Bagnolet, where he was born in 1932. Having settled in Greece, on the island of Skopelos, over twenty years ago, Marc Held still continues to build houses and furnish them with his creations, working closely with Greek craftsmen. Text in English and French. AUTHOR: Michele Champenois is a journalist and architect and design critic. At Le Monde, in the 1980s, then at Le Monde 2, the magazine, from 2004 to 2009, she followed the latest trends in these fields. She has collaborated on other publications, such as L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui, and radio broadcasts for France-Culture. She is the author of 'Andree Putman, ambassadrice du style' (Skira Flammarion, 2010). 150 colour, 28 b/w